An NCAA-record winning streak ended Sunday

University of North Dakota players begin celebrating their 3-2 win over the University of Minnesota at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. The win ended Minnesota's 62- game winning streak.

After winning an NCAA-record 62 consecutive games, the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team fell 3-2 to North Dakota on Sunday in front of 2,435 at Ridder Arena.

The last previous loss for the top-ranked Gophers (13-1-0, 11-1-0 Western Collegiate Hockey Association) also came at the hands of North Dakota. That 2-1 overtime defeat on Feb. 17, 2012, came in the opening game of the final regular-season series that year.

Minnesota coach Brad Frost said the team is happy to be a part of history, but he said the Gophers didn’t play a full game of hockey to their potential Sunday.

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“Success for us is simply looking yourself in the mirror tonight and asking yourself, ‘Did you give everything that you could of for yourself and for your team?’ ” he said. “If so, then you are successful. Unfortunately, I think there is going to be a lot of sad girls looking in the mirror tonight because they know that they didn’t give everything they had for the full 60 minutes.”

Bethany Brausen, Minnesota’s senior captain, said the loss is disappointing but the team can learn a lot from it.

“Our team is 13-1; we are not 62-1,” she said. “This was a collaborative effort of not just this year, (but) years in the past, as well. We still got three goals ahead and that is to win the conference, then win the conference tournament and then, hopefully, a national championship again this year. All three goals are still in mind.”

Three freshmen — Kayla Gardner, Gracen Hirschy and Susanna Tapani — got North Dakota (9-2-1, 7-2-1-1) off to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Tapani’s goal at 12:38 came on a power play.

Minnesota dominated the second period, capitalizing on two power plays while outshooting UND 14-8.

Rachel Ramsey started the scoring 1:50 into the period with a shot from the blue line. Less than eight minutes later, Sarah Davis scored 11 seconds after Gardner was whistled for interference.

The Gophers outshot North Dakota 13-8 in the third period.

“I was expecting us to score,” Frost said. “I think our team was, as well. I talked yesterday about the belief that our team has, that they are going to win. They didn’t quit until the buzzer sounded, and so I’m really proud of them for the way they finished.”

The Gophers play at Yale (2-5-1) next weekend before returning to host Princeton Nov. 30-Dec. 1.

Brausen said the team’s emotions from Sunday’s game will be a motivator this week at practice.

“I think that next weekend we’re going to be so energized and ready to go to get right back to it,” she said. “With a loss like that, there’s a lot of emotion there, and so I think all week in practice we’re really going to be buckling down and fixing those things that we do want to fix and hopefully next weekend coming out and proving that again we are the top team in the country … not only next weekend but throughout the rest of the season.”